This past weekend I took the time to edit and publish the audio version of The Drop: Season Four. It only took a few hours, believe it or not. Maybe because I’ve done it enough times to where the process goes smoothly. The main sticking points are names and how they’re pronounced, but this time Amazon Voice (or whatever it’s called) did just fine. The other piece that’s time-consuming is putting in pauses between sections. Again, easy enough, I just have to scroll through each chapter and find the breaks. I price the audiobook between the eBook and the paperback, although both the eBook and audiobook are “free” if you have Kindle Unlimited.
In the same sitting, I also returned to First Step to see if the pronunciation algorithm has improved. If you remember, I tried it earlier this year, but the AI couldn’t pronounce one of the character’s names correctly on a consistent basis. Guess what? That problem still exists, so First Step will remain audiobook-less a little bit longer. I know, this should be the point where I defer to a human voice actor. Heck, the book lends itself to that treatment anyway. However, as you know if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, that venture takes money, and not a small amount. I wish I could do it, but for now you’ll just have to read it the old-fashioned way.